Inhale, Exhale
by linuseyes
Summary: At the news of Warrick's death, David and Wendy have a moment of understanding.


Hey all, it's been a while! I've been on hiatus since college started, but this season's premiere got me inspired again. To be honest, I'm not sure how long this fic will go. It might be more than this one chapter, but I just want to post the first part before it drove me bonkers. It's the most emotionally heavy thing I've written so far and I'd like your constructive criticism. I really want to keep every character's nature as true as possible. I hope you all enjoy it!

**Inhale, Exhale**

In all respects, David Hodges had never gone through such a hellish week in some time. With the ever constant whispers of Gedda having an "in" in the department, the thug's murder, and Warrick Brown under suspicion, the trace tech had been left mildly paranoid and stressed. Having to do trace on a CSI he knew and was comfortable with was a disorienting experience. David had been a part of the LVPD's lab for more than five years and he had been acquainted with the quirky family that the crime scene investigators had created for themselves, despite his strange place slightly outside of it. But finally, finally, the investigation was over and done with. Danny Pritchard had shot Gedda and framed Warrick for it- all of the evidence pointed to this truth. Upon the CSI's release near the end of shift, the whole crew took off a few hours early for a celebratory breakfast at their favorite greasy spoon. It was well earned but David wished he had been included in the festivities, but no matter.

_One day they'll include me,_ he thought, hoping to reassure himself, _they just haven't realized how great I am yet. Don't they know I like _them_?_

Pushing these thoughts aside, he stuck his nose back under the microscope to compare paint samples from a car and well, something else. _Cases are often cracked when one has the solitude in which to focus, _he whispered to himself. It was true, he didn't have that spiky-haired punk Sanders yapping at his heels like some dog.

"Talking to yourself again, Freak-boy?" said a coy voice behind Hodges, jolting him out of his state of concentration. This jolt took him up and slammed his nose into the eyepiece of the microscope, his knees and thighs into the desk above them.

"Mghah!" gasped the tech as his nerves realized pain. Scooting back from his desk on his office chair, clutching his nose, Hodges turned to his surprise with a vengeful glare. It didn't last long, however. Standing tall and sassy as ever was Wendy Simms, his rhetorical sparring partner and, though he loath admit it, likely unattainable love interest. She crossed her arms, cocking her head with a half-hidden smirk at his confusion and pain while he tried to find something sharp to shoot back at her. But between the pinching sting of his nose and his overall shock, all the cutting scientist could manage was a raspy "You…Was that really necessary, Simms?" He removed his hand from his pink and somewhat swollen nose and stood up to meet his lab guest. She bit her lip to hide the giggles that begged to leak out at the sight of his pouting face with the pink, slightly puffy nose.

"Well, yes and no. Actually, now that I get to see you that surprised, it was totally necessary. You're not that unshakeable, Hodges," she said lightly, catching his grey eyes with her brown ones.

"Not unshakeable? You must be talking about the wrong David Hodges. I am _completely_ unshakeable," he boasted, deciding not to mention his germ and hot dog phobias for the sake of argument.

"Completely? You mean there's not one thing in the universe that could completely throw you off? Not one?" she lifted a long index finger in emphasis.

"Try me," David taunted, wondering what possible wonderful or terrible things could emerge from his dare. Somehow, the scientists found themselves standing very close to one another once again. Neither could remember taking steps forward, but there they were, almost nose-to-nose again. David noticed a rapid increase in his heart rate and he was quite sure it was audible, but he didn't shift his gaze from her eyes and kept his face straight. Wendy Simms, a supermodel of a CSI, was a foot away from him, _him_, and he was having a damn staring contest with her! He could say something, and ruin it or he could say something, and something miraculous could happen. Which to choose? There was no clear answer for him to choose, so he settled for an "And…?"

"And what?" Wendy replied, not changing her stance or gaze.

"What're you going to do?" he teased, knowing that his words could send this moment straight to hell. He was sure an inch between them had been subtracted in the last moment, but he couldn't be sure.

Wendy didn't reply, but thinned her lips and let them roll out to their fullness, as if she was preparing herself to say or do something- but what? David could have sworn there was a frog in his throat, a cat on his tongue making any speech from him impossible. So they stood, for fifteen seconds before a familiar, awkward voice shattered their focus and interrupted the emotional chemical reaction taking place. It was Henry Andrews, poking his head inside David's lab, asking Wendy, "Did you ask him yet? Bobby, Archie, and Mandy are about to eat the break room table if we don't get out of here." Suddenly, the DNA tech was a full five feet away again, shooting out a quick "We're going down to Gracie's Diner for breakfast. We've got permission to leave early. You know, considering the reason to celebrate."

Before David could compose a response, all of a sudden there was a rush of noise from the reception desk as Conrad Ecklie descended into the lab, demanding the presence of all lab techs immediately. _What now?_ The balding assistant director barged into the break room, the sight of him causing the faces of the techs inside to fall. At the sight of this, the three exchanged glances of confusion and muttered variations of "We should go" slightly out of unison. The group shuffled quickly into the break room, where Bobby, Mandy, Archie, and Ecklie shared the same look of disquiet and tension. Casting a look of attempted professionalism and unease, the normally oil-slick bureaucrat sighed and paused, trying to keep his own composure.

"I need all of you to pull another double tonight. The worst has happened... Warrick Brown has been shot twice in the neck behind the diner the crew was eating at… He died on the scene." The balding superior halted his words as Mandy choked out a loud sobbing "No!" Her exclamation was the voice of all of them as they stood, frozen in shock and silence. The two men beside her wrapped an arm around her as Mandy bit her thumb to keep control. Hodges watched Wendy's face turn to a mask of surprise and breathless sadness, while Henry's eyes fell to the floor as he dragged his feet over to Mandy and the other techs he was close with. All the while, Hodges' mind was like television static- all of the noise and snow bouncing around, a roar of chaos and nothing.

_No, no way! I just saw him! Nonononono! Not dead, not dead!_ screamed the static in his head, the words bouncing and colliding until they slowed to quiet. Coming out of himself for a moment, David watched as Wendy quietly slipped out, stumbled to her office, and slumped into her chair, mute. Turning to Ecklie, he tried "I…I need to…I need to work. To do something…" Ecklie nodded and said "Grissom will be here in five minutes. You'll need to take his clothes…they've got Warrick's blood on them. You know what you need to do."

David swallowed, nodded, and cast a sympathetic look to the group clustered at the end of the break room table, and moved robotically out the door. Moving in a straight line towards his work station, passing through Wendy's office and not even noticing it before he was almost past her still, slouched form in her chair. Pausing in his steps, David was at a loss for action- whether to hug her, or say something, or just keep walking. So he stared at her back for a moment, watched it barely move as she breathed shallowly. Then, figuring this was the best compromise, he carefully placed his hand on her shoulder, giving her a gentle squeeze. David felt her tense and twist her chair on its wheels to face him; without moving his hand from her shoulder, Wendy and Hodges found themselves staring at each other, both at a loss for things to say. Wendy was surprised to find David Hodges attempting to comfort her, but didn't want to say anything for fear that he might leave her; David was surprised she hadn't brushed him off like a fly on her shoulder, but then, emotional pain does strange things to people. Without any idea how to respond to him, to say _Yes, thank you for trying to help me. Please stay, don't go._ Wendy settled for resting a hand on his.

The silence continued and neither moved again, but the silence was different: it wasn't a vacuous silence or a tense silence. This silence was fingers interlocking and spaces between them shrinking, but neither could describe it. So the silence remained for a few moments more until more noise erupted in the lab as Grissom entered the office.

Watching Grissom enter the lab, Hodges found, for one of the rare instances, he was not excited to see his boss. Glancing back down at Wendy, he managed to utter "I'll see you later. I have to take Grissom's clothes…" Not wanting to back away, not wanting to stop touching Wendy, David Hodges managed to tear himself away to do the job that needed to be done.

For once, David would admit to himself that he had been wrong. The past week had not been hell. Last week, he hadn't even reached the gates of Hades. This, this new place, where he would strip his hero to analyze the blood of his fallen colleague- that, _that_ was hell.


End file.
